Radio Astronomy

Contains reports on four research projects.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-264-62)U. S. Navy (Office of Naval Research) under Contract Nonr-3963(02)-Task 2Lincoln Laboratory, Purchase Order DDL B-00368U. S. NavyU. S. ArmyU. S. Air Force under Air Force Contract AF19(604)-7400National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-250-62)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NaSr-101

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on three research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-57)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-1165

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grants GK-57)National Science Foundation (Grants GK-614

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on eight research projects split into two sections.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-1165

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on ten research projects split into three sections.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-2581

Plasma flows during the ablation stage of an over-massed pulsed-power-driven exploding planar wire array

We characterize the plasma flows generated during the ablation stage of an over-massed exploding planar wire array, fielded on the COBRA pulsed-power facility (1 MA peak current, 250 ns rise time). The planar wire array is designed to provide a driving magnetic field (80-100 T) and current per wire distribution (about 60 kA), similar to that in a 10 MA cylindrical exploding wire array fielded on the Z machine. Over-massing the arrays enables continuous plasma ablation over the duration of the experiment. The requirement to over-mass on the Z machine necessitates wires with diameters of 75-100 $\mu$m, which are thicker than wires usually fielded on wire array experiments. To test ablation with thicker wires, we perform a parametric study by varying the initial wire diameter between 33-100 $\mu$m. The largest wire diameter (100 $\mu$m) array exhibits early closure of the AK gap, while the gap remains open during the duration of the experiment for wire diameters between 33-75 $\mu$m. Laser plasma interferometry and time-gated XUV imaging are used to probe the plasma flows ablating from the wires. The plasma flows from the wires converge to generate a pinch, which appears as a fast-moving ($V \approx {100}$ kms$^{-1}$) column of increased plasma density ($\bar{n}_e \approx 2 \times 10^{18}$ cm$^{-3}$) and strong XUV emission. Finally, we compare the results with three-dimensional resistive-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations performed using the code GORGON, the results of which reproduce the dynamics of the experiment reasonably well.Comment: 14 pages; 14 figure

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-2581

Plasma Electronics

Contains reports on eight research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-24073)United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AF(30-1)-3285)Lincoln Laboratory (Purchase Order DDL BB-107)United States Air Force (Contract AF19(628)-500)United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-3221

Plasmas and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Contains reports on twelve research projects split into three sections.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-57)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-1165

Plasma Electronics

Contains reports on twelve research projects.United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-3285)United States Atomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)-3221National Science Foundation (Grant GK-57